If It’s Good Enough For Wolfgang Puck…

…then it is probably good enough for you too to serve it with confidence.  Every year, for the past 20 years, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, has served this to the Hollywood elite at the Academy Awards Governor’s Ball.  What exactly are we referring to?  Chicken Pot Pie!Of course he serves many many dishes both as hors d’oeuvres as well as main course items but he has said again and again in interviews, that the one thing everyone requests every year is the chicken pot pie.

So as you’re planning your Oscar party why not make this the “star” of your dinner show.  It isn’t complicated and the best part is you can make it ahead and just pop it in the oven about 30 minutes before you want to eat. Wolfgang Puck knows a thing or two about food and about serving people what they like to eat.  So follow his lead.  You really can’t go wrong.  You are sure to have an award winning evening!

Oscar Party Chicken Pot Pie

Cooked chicken , cut into cubes or shredded (if you are in a real hurry buy a rotisserie chicken from the market)
Carrots
Celery
Onion
Potatoes
Peas
Chicken stock or broth
Butter
1 cup  heavy cream
Flour
Salt and pepper
Poultry seasoning
Pie pastry dough

Pot pie like many classic country dishes begins with what the French call a mirepoix.   The classic mirepoix is the combination of carrots, celery and onion sauted with butter or olive oil.

After sauteing these vegetables in a stick of butter, add a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour and cook for 2-3 minutes to eliminate the raw taste of the flour.  The amount of vegetables you use will depend on the amount of meat you have to add to the filling.  The total quantity of carrots, celery, onions, potatoes and peas combined should be roughly the same as the quantity of meat you have for the filling.

Stir in 2 cups of chicken stock.  You can add more stock if you have a lot of meat and vegetables to add to filling but keep the ratio of flour to stock to 1 part flour to 4 parts stock.  Continue stirring while the vegetables cook.  After the liquid begins to thicken, stir in diced potatoes, and diced or shredded chicken.  Add a package of peas and about 1 cup of heavy cream.  Add salt and pepper and about 1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning and taste.  Correct seasoning and add more as needed.

The filling can be spooned into individual serving dishes and topped with pie dough.

Cut decorative slits in the dough to allow the steam to escape while the pie is baking.

Or make one large pot pie and top it the same as individual pies with pie dough and make slits there too.  Brush the top of the crust with milk.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until crust is browned and filling is bubbling.

One note of advice.  What makes a pot pie really good is the ratio of filling to crust.  If you are making a large pot pie to spoon up as individual servings, be sure to pour the filling into a baking dish that allows the filling to be fairly shallow.  It should not be more than about 1 1/2″ deep.  Then top with pie dough and crimp the edges along the sides of the baking dish to seal in filling.  Keeping the filling shallow insures that everyone will get plenty of flaky crust along with their pot pie  filling.

When you serve this one up you are sure to hear “And for the award for the best Oscar dinner, the winner is…..you!”